Scooter Hobbs column: Do game times matter in the NCAA tourney

American Press

28-05-2025

Before you wonder aloud why little old me would ever get in an verbal tussle with Skip Bertman, be advised that I once won an argument with the LSU legend himself, the coach who basically invented college baseball.
No, I don't mind re-telling the story.
It was in Omaha, of course, and at the time Bertman had won zero national championships.
He was a big believer in what he called the 'marble' game, the key contest you needed to win to get the upper hand in the College World Series.
The Tigers were 1-0 and would play their second game the next day as we media gathered around Bertman during practice at an Omaha high school.
I mentioned to him that this would be marble game.
No, no, he corrected me, the third game is the marble game.
A year earlier that was correct, when the bracket was still an eight-team free-for-all that meandered about like Chutes and Ladders.
But this particular year, the CWS bracket had changed to a pair of four-team brackets, with the double-elimination survivors from each meeting in a winner-take-all championship.
With the new bracket, I pointed out, the winner of the second game would be the last unbeaten in its half of the bracket and would have two chances to win the one game it needed to get to the championship.
Bertman raised up that index finger (as only he could) and started to say something before going silent. You could see the wheels turning, then he took a deeper breath and paused before pronouncing.
'We are changing the marble game,' he announced. 'Good work.'
It was probably my proudest moment in this screwy profession is all it was. Especially with a handful of colleagues as eye witnesses.
Bertman eventually won five national championships over the next 10 years, and while I'm not taking any of the credit, I'm not discounting it either.
I should have quit while I was ahead.
I never did win him over on another sticking point, mainly the time a regional host should play its first game.
The hosts have first dibs on first-day starting times.
It's not a dead-lock guarantee — the networks now have veto power — but it's rare when hosts don't get their wish.
Bertman experimented both ways, but mostly liked to play the afternoon game, giving his team more time to recuperate before the next day's second round began.
I argued that the few hours extra rest was offset by three hours in a sticky, broiling late-May Louisiana sun.
A minor sticking point, perhaps. It's not like you'd need long johns and ear muffs for the night game, where likely as not at least four or five innings would be in broad daylight.
When he came to LSU current coach Jay Johnson agreed with me, apparently, but consulted with Bertman about the matter.
I wasn't in on the discussions.
And what do you know?
Bertman — mea culpa alert — was right all along.
When he was at Arizona as a host No. 1 seed, Johnson wanted to play the late game.
'It was because it's a billion degrees (in Tucson), and you just hope the first two teams melt out there in the sun,' Johnson said.
I'd counter that it's not the heat, it's the humidity that evens our blister meter from the high desert.
'Here, I did a lot of research, talked to Skip about what he preferred,' Johnson said.
And that's why the Tigers will open the Baton Rouge regional at 2 p.m. against Arkansas-Little Rock.
Humidity is a factor — not the sticky kind, but what Les Miles used to call a 'good, stiff dew.'
You may know it as 'rain,' often accompanied by lightning this time of year.
The combination — persistent lightning strikes in the area more than precipitation — has been a huge factor in many past Baton Rouge regionals.
'You have to play the games in order,' Johnson said. 'If you were to get disrupted (by weather), having the first (game) done is probably an advantage for your team.'
Hard to argue with that. Maybe I'd suggest that a Friday night opener is a better guarantee for a full house, and the longer those fans tailgate, the happier they generally are.
But if Johnson really wanted an advantage, he'd have requested a 9:55 p.m. start time.
LSU is 4-0 this season in weather-delayed games that finished after midnight.
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Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics for the American Press.